The dreaded Committee Meeting...

Okay, so I've left you hanging on tender hooks long enough. I know, you probably haven't been able to sleep let alone eat but now is the time to tell all.......

ALL IS WELL!!!!

According to the Hubby the meeting was surprisingly good with constructive debate, clarifications and agreements!? Yes this is the same meeting I was so worried about. Turns out we're all fine and dandy and the world is a glorious place to live. The Exordinary General Meeting has even been called off. What a fantabulous relief. There were of course details, but details didn't matter on Wednesday night once I'd seen Andrew's smiling face instead of his grumpy one after the meeting. There was also some very tasty wine so even if I had of been listening very closely indeed I couldn't tell those details, but who cares - the outcome was good!!!

Hold on, one of two items are floating into my mind ~ there is going to be a bulk order of manure and compost and the toilet is going to be moved to the middle point of the lotties, where the 4 fields meet. Wow, my brain is capable of some memory skills then! Horrah for that too.

Plus today I can see BLUE sky through these fab Velux windows, I got loads of ironing done, cleaned the kitchen, was given a bottle of my favourite perfume as a surprise gift and have finally got hold of some sewing machine thread - the time has come to use the machine for the first time! Eeek, I swear, it's been looking at me, taunting me.

Tomorrow WE ARE going to the plots come rain or shine and work SHALL be acheived and everything will be wonderful. Yea!, for the prevailance of common sense and a happy lottie full of happy people, planting happy seeds! I expect to see smiles all round and plenty of hard graft.

Allotments Rock!!!!!!!

Newton's 3rd law

Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.

I decided a few days ago when I was feeling better than I do today that 'depression and anxiety have opposites ~ love and hope. I am not giving up this fight to move forward with my life, I have love and I have hope and they have EQUAL POWER. I must remember the strength that lies within.'

I'm glad I wrote that down for myself, today is terrible and I needed a pep talk from the real Carrie. Also I have read all the comments left by you, my most loyal and supportive of readers and I thank you once more.

***

So, today I feel crap but I have my blankets, my little portable radiator by my side and the sound of the rain pelting down on the Velux windows. I've decided I like these windows, this is the first house I have lived in were there are any. I love to lie here on our Ikea sofa (bargin!!) and watch the clouds go by. Though today there is just one massive cloud over N Ireland so the view is, well, white.

Tonight there is another committee meeting. I am loathed to even think about it but as Andrew is going and the minutes of the last meeting arrived yesterday and the allotment forum page is up on this laptop all the time (Andrew not me) I am finding it hard to ignore. They always seem to descend into arguments and take much longer than the alloted 2 hours. But one good thing is wine is always brought home after ~ to calm Andrew's nerves and just tickle my taste buds while I listen to the whole saga.

Oh, there is unhappiness at the plots and it isn't just about the weather. I have mentioned it before but there is an Exordinary General Meeting proposed, some people are just so fed up. I for one am staying out of it, politics in N Ireland drives me up the walls anyway, I have an allotment to get away from such crap. The forums (though I try very hard not to listen to Andrew) are full of people letting off steam and others trying to clam them down and remind them WE HAVE ALLOTMENTS and that is a good thing; it's all that matters. If we rough up the waters too much with our council we may be seen as an nuisance and god knows what would happen then. I, like many other people down there, NEED my plots. I don't just want it, it is therapy and....oh bother I'm getting annoyed again. (Go to your happy place Carrie...)

***

More importantly we bought our seed potatoes yesterday. Damned if I can remember the variety, hold on til I ring Andrew......  Pentland Javlin (1st earlies) and  British Queens (2nd earlies). We aren't doing my favourite Maris Piper this year because we always seem to get horrendous blight on our main crops. Fingers crossed these do well, once we finally get to our plot to plant them and more importantly, fingers crossed they taste yummy and mash well!

x

I'm back :)

It has been brought to my attention that I have let my 5 mins of fame go to my head and really, I must get back to work. Thank you Mo for the kick up the bum that I needed, I have blogging to do!

Well, let's talk about the allotments then. Nothing is happening on the plots. The weather has put stop to things on our sweet little slices of Eden and not a thing has been achieved, apart from talking about it!! But to be fair our whole weekend there was taken up with the gutting out of Mamma G's attic room and en suite bathroom, painting it and generally working our (not so little unfortunately) bums off getting it ready for us to move into. This was Andrew's old bedroom and bathroom built as a loft conversion so there are lots of memories there and Mamma had also been using it as storage for the past while, all this equalled much work to be done. But we managed it and everywhere is painted and today the new carpet goes down! This moving house lark is very hard work and we've got to do it twice this year, hahha (manic laughter).

Anyway can't complain, it is going to look lovely and Mamma is great (Maggie adores her Granny) and I'll still be able to blog away as there is broadband at the house - yippeeee!!!!!

So apart from that and a couple of serious nervous breakdowns, I have been busy trying to relax get some sleep. 2 months, two months of about 3 hours a night and yesterday I finally slept all night and all day :)

Now to some important Lottie News; a Extraordinary General Meeting has been called for. Oh dear :(
There was a letter sent out to the assocation members and it contained another letter signed by a number of people who have called for a EGM soon; they are unhappy with the way things are being run (or not run) and feel the committee is split down the middle and thus practically useless. Which in one way is true, the committee isn't split as far as I am aware but they have very limited powers (read none) and thus it can appear that they aren't doing anything. Our council still runs the whole place and our committee is sort of a talking shop.

I do hope this goes smoothly and the meeting is a time were people can have their thoughts and concerns listened to without it descending into a row. I fear we sometimes forget how lucky we are to have allotments in the first place and I also fear that making too much of a noise will make the council think twice - I can't lose my plots ~ I'll lose the plot !!!(pun intended even though embarassingly bad).

So there we are, all updated, now I'm off for a wee decaff and a homemade gingerbread star - yum. I leave you with a seaside photo to calm the mind....

other people's plots and produce to be jealous about

I love my friends in field A, they are approachable, funny and passionate about the lotties, blah blah, blah. But sometimes I tell you, they grate on my nerves! Just look at some of the great plots and fab produce they are growing. One person even has a pumpkin (the darn plants just WILL NOT fruit for us ~ conspiracy??) and look at Ronnie's onions drying~they are huge and just perfect. (I'm not that jealous about this though as onions and I have a very bad relationship - they make me very ill).

That broccoli head is massive, the photo doesn't really show that.

Overview photos are of Mary, Colin and Bobby's plots (just a few great ones).......

Down at the lotties last night was very disheartening as the wind, the damn wind!, was blowing a gale in our field; battering some plants to actual death on our new plot 14b. It's because we haven't got any wind breaks up yet in that plot and the site as a whole has no shelter, especially after the disastrous hedge 'trim' (read 'massacre') we had recently.

Ah well, I am really happy that my friends are doing so well, honestly. After all it isn't a competition.

However! I do have this ......

and that trumps everything everyone could grow!

So then, the AGM.... (plus Andrew is 30 today!)

First of...

HAPPY 30TH BIRTHDAY ANDREW!!!!

BIG HUGS AND KISSES XXX

Oh, it's such a beautiful day today, the sun is bursting and there is just the slightest comfortable breeze off the sea. Heavenly. I wish I was outside writing this in the back garden but my hay fever meds from the Dr take a week to kick in and I only got them on Monday - no fair! Plus there are people mowing their grass and making it even worse - how rude!!!

So I want to tell you about our AGM last night. Officially you could say it was the 1st one, as last year there were only a few of us and now our number has about trebled! Of course it was held on the most glorious of nights and we should all have been tending our plots but such is life.

I was both happy and as usual, disappointed at the turn out. A lot more people than usual gathered (but then again we are a bigger group) but it was still only a fraction of our number. We (after much confusion and changing of the constitution to fit our needs better) elected our new committee members. We have 16 this year as opposed the the 10 we had before. I think it's probably a good idea; little sub groups can be made to focus on certain tasks and more voices = more opinions, ideas and hopefully fair decision making.

We chose our 4 main guys:

• Chairperson ~ Ronnie
• Vice Chairperson ~ Mel
• Secretary~ Austin
• Treasurer ~ Ivan.

Then there are the other 12 (including the Hubby).

Personally I think we have a good bunch of people and I wish them all the luck in the world. Red tape is my mortal enemy and they are going to have to deal with yards of it! A spiders web.r

The meeting somewhat descended into chaos and a shouting match, reminiscent of a school playground. Many people started to get, umm, passionate and this came across as anger and almost a bullying undertone began against our allotment council official. I'm afraid to say it was all very embarrassing and quite childish. We were all there to work together and make this the best Allotments we can and sometimes passions run so high we lose sight of the joy that we have an allotment in the first place. Yes, most of the arguments and comments were valid but I believe a calm head is required at these meetings or progress will never happen. Plus, there is no excuse for bullying at any time what so ever, no matter how frustrated we may get.

Anyway, the tensions calmed down and now we have some very confusing and upsetting questions cleared up and I think everyone left the meeting feeling a bit better and maybe reassured. Mistakes have been made by the council but they excepted that and no one is being evicted as they had feared. Mistakes have been made on our part too and I think, I hope we have a clean slate now.

Next event we have to look forward to is the family fun day and I know we'll all work together for that. We all care about our plots, we all care, that's the important thing.

A quick introduction and a mystery

I got the (quite) sad news about my request to take over A24b (thereby having a full square plot) on the morning we left for Italy. Mark and Charlene didn't wish to give up their half and move and well, I had to respect that. I was just glad to know for sure.

So it's about time I formerly introduced you to our new baby - A14b. (Check out the link to the map to see her in the grander scale of things). As you can see Maggie is already overseeing everything that is done to her new conquered land, though she does prefer the delicious comforts of 24a behind her to a mucky plot. Such a princess!

So there it is. The previous owner Terry has decided to chop up his full plot into 2 as he hasn't the time to work it all. So we have the side closest to our 'first born' (24a) and behind Gary's Shed. We're slowly using those history lessons about battle strategy to surround Gary and then conquer his plot too!!!! Oh, that should really be a secret....

You can see 24a just the left of Andrew with our wee shed, mini greenhouse and the not so mini fruit arch etc.

A good portion of this new plot was covered in thick black plastic and under that the ground had been ploughed over last year so the soil is in pretty good nick. We're starting down there and slowly we'll work upwards. There is a plan!

Anyway, Saturday was the first day of work and we marked out a few beds and started the old double digging. You know, dig a trench, fork it over at the bottom, put a layer of compost/manure at the bottom, then fill it in with the stuff you dig out of the trench beside it. Andrew shocked me by shouting out to Bobby that we were 'Bastard Trenching!', I thought he must be in a terrible mood already, but supposedly that is another name for it.

My trenches all went a bit tits up when on the start of my 2nd trench I came across this fellow. It took me over and hour to get it out of the wet stone packed clay-y soil it was in. And Bill's metal pole (The persuader), lots of big rocks, 2 wooden planks and a very shouty, flustered Hubby to finally lift it clear.

I went home after that but my Hubby soldiered on. I haven't seen it yet, I think he has 2 beds in and potatoes planted! What a trouper. Hopefully I'll go tonight, I'm still not fully recovered from the latest blip but I think it would be nice to get out.

********

Ah, yes the mystery....well before we left for Italy Andrew went down to check on everything and found a present in our cold frame. These great books! There wasn't a note in the bag or in with the books and anyone he asked knew nothing about it! Another detective adventure begins..

By the way, last night's meeting was seemingly rather productive and although it took a very long time some important issues were discussed. I can't remember the majority of it all (there was wine in his had, come on, what's more immediately essential; info or wine?) but he did waffle on about hedges, roads, Dublin, Charity plots and water taps and me having to help him with the fundraising etc etc (ummm, a Merlot I was thinking).

£20 reward for my Hubby back!

My Andrew has gone to his 1st Eden Allotment Holders Association Committee meeting tonight. He was co-opted onto the panel for a while until the next AGM and the meeting started at 7pm. It's 9.40pm now and I want him back!!!!!

They better be making some progress at that meeting, large strides forward, gigantic leaps into the future evolution and development of our Lotties or there will be one angry, lonesome, bored stiff, crappy-TV-programme-watching wife to answer to! Me!

You know, sometimes, Allotmeenteering doesn't rock.

If you get 5 minutes.... / venture further a field

When Andrew got home from work last night, it was case of everyone in the car and away; we had a quick picnic dinner at the Lottie. Andrew needed to get into the prep of our new half plot. Luckily Bill was there and lent him his petrol strimmer - I left him to it, he seemed to be enjoying himself, hehe.

At the meeting the night before, Myrtle (our Chairwoman) asked me to give out some leaflets; I find it hard to say "no" to people (don't take advantage of that information!) and so I ended up with 20 odd to hand out. (alanromans.com has discounted seeds for us on his on-line shop - cool!) It was a colder evening and I was freezing so the walk would do me good anyway and I couldn't really help Andrew with the strimming; I doubt I could lift the contraption even if he had let me.

Firstly I visited friends that hadn't been able to make it to the meeting. Davy and his son were having a wee tea in their shed after picking Cow Slips for Davy's wife. How cute are they?! Then over to Rab who has just swapped plots, now he's on the other side of Ronnie on a piece of land that isn't water logged all the time. He has achieved more in a couple of days on this plot than he did in a year on his first. The enthusiasm is back and it's looking great already - Well done Rab (and David).

On up at the top of Field A I met Mary for the first time. Ridiculous I know, we've both been at the Lotties since they started and I often admired her Dahlias last summer but never spoke to her. My Goodness I was missing out on someone special there ~ she is lovely, make that LOVELY. We had a good old chat and I'll be back there again for a coffee and natter, that's for sure.

The only people in Field B were committee members, (Maxine and John) I didn't realise who they were until I was right up beside them. That was somewhat of a wasted journey, of course they had the leaflets I was handing out!

Field D had a good few people on it as usual. The new plot holders have so much energy and drive, I love it. I even bumped into brothers who are hoping to get a plot and were checking the project out. You know I spoke to 5 or 6 people in that field and was so nervous by then that I couldn't even tell you one name, I don't even think I introduced myself! I really do think the Allotments have grown too quickly for me, I can't begin to keep up with all the plot holders, I was just getting used to my group of friends in Field A!

Lastly (to complete my loop back to my shed) I went through Field C. I first met another Davy and very nice he was too. My Papa (grandfather) always said you can tell a lot about someone by their hand shake - well his was lovely, firm and friendly - I instantly warmed to him. Then there were friendly 2 families (one of which sat behind Andrew and I at the meeting, but of course I don't know their names - I'm so bad) and then 2 nice blokes working hard. At the very end I bumped into dear Donald as well.

Andrew and Maggie had by now started their own little search party for me! Andrew had finished his work and wanted me to see the plot cut back and pegged out. It is great and the soil under that black plastic is good but I am still holding out for the plot adjoining ours, I just need to get in contact with Mark & Charlene and see if they will swap with us.

Anyway, it was really great having a reason to force myself out there into the wider Eden Lottie world and chat to people. It's pretty obvious we all need to socialise with each other more, it has become quite segregated into different Fields and I don't like that. It's also obvious that communication is terrible on site and people are hearing either nothing or all sorts of rumours from people - Chinese whispers. I look forward to the AGM and the Fun Day - hopefully we can all become more of the community I hoped we would be.

So after talking to so many people I was a wreck, wine and meds both were needed for me to get any sleep and I was up at 6 this morning panicking badly again. I love to meet people but it makes me so acutely anxious. I'm on a self-imposed strike today ~ doing nothing but reading and maybe yoga!

Wow, that's got to be the longest post ever!

A very poor turn out :(

So we just had a Allotmenteers' Meeting in the local Civic Center. Everyone was invited of course, though it was mainly an opportunity to welcome the newer Lottie holders in Fields C and D and a chance for all of us to tell our Committee the issues and ideas we have.

Hardly anyone was there. I'll tell you I was very disappointed. I took the trusty wee camera to take a nice group picture of us from the balcony, but I ended up taking pictures of the roof of the building. Honestly, the AGM better be 5 times fuller or we won't even be able to pass a single issue ~ you need a quarter of the members to be there to get anything done.

Though we do have a major problem with that - to vote in our association you have to be a full £5-fee-paying-member, just owning a plot isn't enough. Though I don't think the majority of people there know that.

I know that people have other things they would rather do than go to a meeting (working on their plot for instance on a nice night like it was)~ red tape and arguments are certainly not my cup of tea ~ but Andrew and I were there with bells on. Even with my anxiety I spoke out many times but when things turned sour I really couldn't cope. We are supposed to be in this together; petty fighting has no role in progress.

Anyway, not a great deal was done. Ideas have been thrown out there, tensions were vented and the poor members of the committee had to try and stand up for themselves at every turn. Goodness, there is only so much they can do and with our project only being a year old, we have little creditably behind us, plus half of us started last year, half this year. We're seedlings ~ needing support and a period of stability and some nurturing.

Well I don't even want to talk anymore, I'm so tense after all my talking in front of people and desperate attempts to make the meeting about communication and working together. I've the worse headache - god knows how everyone else feels, including those who stormed off.

Lastly, Andrew has been co-opted into the committee! Eeek, I don't envy him, the bureaucracy would drive me mad!

Our AGM, in the paper.

Andrew bought the other newspaper for the Carrickfergus area last night. It cost a mighty 10p more than the one I spoke of at the very start of my Blog; the one that I deemed uninterested in the Allotments and therefore just plain wick. The extra 10p seems to have paid off, as our little AGM was given a write up and 2 photos. Unfortunately the photo of Gary, Andrew and me was not included but I have a feeling I was caught with my tongue out at the time, so maybe there's a reason!

It seems that we have a waiting list of 65 people looking to join the club and grow their own. It seems to have really been a major shock to the council - they only started with 36 plots in April (when we were lucky enough to get ours) and then it quickly jumped up to 98, were it stands at the moment. Now that there's 65 more in the works, it makes the single 36 plot field sound rather ridiculous.

Andrew and I were down at our plot last night for some produce and a wee look. We brought the rain with us, honestly, it started the minute we arrived and stopped when we left (are we cursed?!). We did have a nosey round though at everyone else's bit of Eden and some were very impressive but a lot more were very disappointing. I would say that approximately a half of them were in a sorry state. A lot of this could be put down to the terrible weather and the fact that there is a flooding problem (God love those in Field B - I had no idea), but equally where is the determination, the drive to make the best of this brilliant opportunity. Now is the time for digging digging and more digging in preparation for the spring!

Again I get all pent up and will just have to stop talking about this issue. As you know I am passionate and thankful for the Allotments as it seems to have really contributed to a bit of a turn around in my depression and anxiety; my patch of mud means so much.

Inagural General Meeting

Yep, we had our 1st general meeting last night in the Carrickfergus Civic centre. It was rather exciting, or am I just a wee bit geeky? We elected our full-time committee members so now we're official and can set up a bank account and everything. We already have some money in grants waiting for us but until last night we couldn't put it anywhere; I have a good feeling about the people we elected - things are going to get done now! There were so many ideas flying around, the people that took the time to come, really care. I was going to take a photo of everyone, but to be perfectly honest, I was deeply disappointed by the turn out - approx 40 people out of 96 plots? Not so good. I mean come on, this is our Association and at the very least, there was free cake.

It was all very professional feeling - we finalised the wording of constitution for instance. I've never been to an official meeting before and, wait for it....I spoke! I had had a terrible day at home - I've been honest up til now about things so I'm not going to stop - I was bulimic, had tremors, a migraine and a panic attack. But I was there because it means a lot to me, I just clenched those shaky legs and busied myself by taking notes. But when an issue was raised about disabled access and inclusion (another passion) I spoke out. It wasn't until I got home that another panic happened. I was listened to, I still can't believe it, little old me, my views taken seriously - it was a good moment.

I'm shocked also, that we made a profit on the Fun Day and that there is so much monetary funding out there for schemes like this. We also discussed very important issues such as security, fixing the flooding problem, insurance and obtaining manure deliveries. The council has given us compost, quite a lot, in the past, but it isn't the best quality and we all could do with some proper manure to add to it; remember these fields have been football pitches for over 60 years, they need a lot of TLC.

A major problem with the site is wind - I think I've mentioned this before. It was deemed a good idea to get the Woodland Trust involved in helping us pick the right sort of native hedgerow plants and trees to plant as windbreaks. We may even learn about laying hedges - see loads of great ideas. With tree week coming up soon as well, we need to do our bit....

I came home feeling better, personally and about the future of Eden Allotments. And I still can't believe I talked!